Happy Anniversary

36 years ago today, a first date for diner and a movie led to 33 years ago I married not only the man I could live with but I married the man I could not live without.  He's my best friend, my soft place to fall, my biggest cheerleader, my champion and my hunka', hunka' burning love.  Nobody can make me laugh like he can, understands me better or is the person that I would rather spend time with.  We are a team together and with him by my side there is nothing that we cannot accomplish once we set our minds to it. One of our most favorite things to do is still dinner and a movie. My, my how time flies when you are having a good time.  I love you Bob Pool and happy 33rd Anniversary. 

Fresh Strawberry Pie

 It's not "officially" summer by the calendar but the temps here in Central Texas are telling me it's summer so I've decided to make something cool and surprising light for dessert.  And of course to take advantage of the lovely strawberries that are fairly plentiful right now. 

So first off we'll start with the pie crust.  This is not your regular pie crust.  This pie crust would not hold up for an apple, peach, pumpkin, cherry or pecan pie.  This pie crust would be best for anything light and fluffy like a chiffon or Jello and Cool Whip mixture.  It's called "Pat-a-Pie Oil Pastry and that will become reasonably clear once we get further into the recipe. 

So lets assemble our ingredients.  We have flour, sugar, salt, milk and vegetable or canola oil.

 Sift the flour, sugar and salt together.

 Then measure out your oil

 Add the milk to the oil

 And whisk like crazy till it's all lovely and completely combined.

 Then just add the wet to the dry.

 And mix it all together with a fork till it's too hard to mix anymore and then go in with your hand or hands. Till you have everything combined together.

See how that all works together.  Now get out a 9 inch pie pan and start breaking off pieces of dough and patting them into place.

That picture is a little blurry, must have gotten something in my contact.  But you get the idea.  Just keep working with little pieces and soon you will have the pie plate completely covered.  Keep pushing till you have the "crust" up and over the rim and then you can crimp in your favorite style.

Once you get it all crimped, put in a preheated 425 degree oven and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.  Let cool completely before you fill it.

RECIPE:

2 Cups sifted all purpose flour

2 teaspoons sugar

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

2/3 cups salad or canola oil

3 tablespoons milk

 

 

Now let's assemble our ingredients for the filling.  This is also called mise en place (MEEZ ahn plahs) A French term referring to having all the ingredients necessary for a dish prepared and ready to combine up to the point of cooking.

 

 So we have Cool Whip, Strawberry Jell-O or Strawberry-Banana Jell-O, fresh strawberries and sugar.  See how simple that is!

Add boiling water to the Jell-O.

Then take out 1/2 cup of the Jell-O and chill it until slightly thickened.

Cut about 1 1/2 cups of strawberries in 1/2 all the while keeping aside about 8 perfect berries for decorating.

 Once the 1/2 cup of Jell-0 is slightly thickened. you want to fold in the sugar and whipped topping.  If it's not pink enough then add a couple of drops of red food coloring.  I have never found this necessary but go ahead if you want it pinker.   

 

Put this mixture back into the fridge and let it set until it will mound.   Put the other Jell-O into the fridge and let it get cold enough until it resembles runny jelly.

Once the Cool Whip/Jell-O mixture mounds then you can begin assembly.  So first take some of the mixture and spread some on the bottom of the cooled pie crust.

Then place your halved strawberries on top of that mixture. 

Then spoon your jelly like mixture on top of the strawberries.  Just spoon it over until all the berries are covered. 

 Finally take the rest of the Cool Whip/Jell-O mixture and put it into a piping bag and pipe it around the sides and add your perfect berries to complete the assembly.  Wa-la....beautiful,. perfect, light summer dessert. 

RECIPE:

1 pkg. (3 oz.) Jell-O Strawberry or Strawberry-Banana Gelatin

1 2/3 cups boiling water

2 Tablespoons sugar

2 cups (or one 4 1/2 oz. container) Cool Whip Non Dairy Whipped Topping, thawed*

Red Food coloring (optional)

1 baked 9-inch pie crust

1 1/2 cups fresh strawberry halves

*I have never found a 4 /12 oz. container of Cool Whip and we can always use it so I just buy the 8 oz. and measure out what I need. 

 

Dissolve gelatin in boiling water.  Remove 1/2 cup and chill until slightly thickened.  Fold the slightly thickened gelatin and sugar into the whipped topping.  Add a few drops of food coloring. (optional). Chill again, if necessary, until mixture will mound.  Line bottom and sides of crumb crust with the whipped topping mixture, mounding high around edge.  Chill.  Meanwhile, chill remaining gelatin until thickened.  Stir in the strawberries or just place the strawberries on the Cool Whip mixture and spoon the runny jelly Jell-O mixture over the berries.  Add the rest of the Cool Whip by piping the mixture around the pie and then decorate with the perfect berries.  Chill until firm...3 hours or overnight.  

 

The Statue

No, I have not found religion.  But the above picture is a representation of a statue that belonged to my mother.  It is the Blessed Virgin Mary.
 My mother was Catholic.  I was raised Catholic but quit practicing once I got out of the house because it just didn't make sense to me in so many areas but we won't get into that.  This is a story of a statue.
It's very interesting to me that sometimes the smallest of items can make the biggest of impressions on you.
For as long as I can remember and this is going way, way back to 4 or 5 years old, my mother had a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary somewhere near her kitchen sink.  I have no idea why and I'm sorry now that she's gone that I never asked her why. I can remember playing with this statue and being fascinated by Mary's lovely long and wavy hair. 
The statue is not made of fine china rather it's plastic but really, really lovely in it's own right.
As we moved from duty station to duty station our house didn't seem complete until the Blessed Virgin took her place near the sink.  Once that was done...we were Home.
Saturday my sister and I were at my dad's home helping him get organized and happened to notice that the Blessed Virgin was not in her rightful place.  I actually think she was held to the area behind the sink with some sort of putty.
I asked my father if he had moved her and he said "No, I didn't".  My sister came into the room and said that it must have fallen somehow into a drawer.  So we stopped right then and there and started to look for the statue.  We looked in the drawers, we looked under the sink, we looked in the pantry, cabinets, refrigerator, freezer and everyplace in between. 
Where or where has Mary gotten to?   We are perplexed and a little bit freaked out. 
The statue is not worth anything but memories to anyone but us.  My father doesn't have that many visitors and I can't imagine anyone taking it.  He has a housekeeper that comes in once a month but I cannot imagine that she would move it without mentioning it to him. 
The statue is sorta symbolic for the home being whole even though my mother is gone.  It's like a little piece of her still remains. 
My sister and I have quizzed the whole family and no one has taken it.   It's certainly a mystery. 
I suppose if I was a praying person I would pray to St. Anthony who is the patron saint of lost things. 
We will continue to look for it until we either find it or decide that somehow mother decided that she needed it more and was able to take it.  I have seen it since she died so I know that no one put it in the casket.    Yes, it's a mystery...

One year ago....

One year ago today my beautiful mother passed away after a valiant battle with breast cancer.  She was 82 years young, just 2 months shy of her 83rd birthday. 
I miss her so very much but I miss her most when I look at my nieces and see all the things that she is missing.  Christine is in her 4th year of Vet school and having so many wonderful and interesting experiences.  Hannah has her first grown up job and is living in Houston.  I know that my mother would be on the phone with each of the girls every night and peppering them with questions about their days.  Both girls will probably be married within the next couple of years and oh how my mother would love the wedding planning. 
Time does not heal this wound, this wound will never be healed....it's easier to live with but it will never be healed.
I love and miss you so much mom.

Oklahoma

I'm looking outside to overcast skies and thinking of all the work going on right now in Oklahoma.  They were hit extremely hard by yesterdays twister and I am reminded of the small town of Jarrell, TX that was hit a few years back.  Jarrell was hit by an F5 and Moore was hit by an F4 tornado.  The devastation is still the same...Moore is larger by more than half of what Jarrell is but the tornado as I understand it was on the ground for a full 40 to 45 minutes weaving it's path of destruction. 
In Jarrell there was nothing left standing...in fact in some areas the dirt was literally sucked away and all that was left was the limestone bedrock. 
Here where I live in Central Texas we are on the edge of the high risk zone today for tornado's but I will keep my eyes to the skies.  I have been in a tornado before.  Years ago when I was visiting my Aunt and Uncle in Virginia.  It was during my Freshman year in college and I went to visit them in Blacksburg, VA.   I wasn't a weather watcher like I am now and I guess that they weren't either because neither of them mentioned anything about the weather maybe getting bad later on in the night. 
I think it must have been around 12:30 or 1 a.m. when I hear the roar and it sounded just like a freight train was coming toward the house.  I was upstairs in a bedroom.  My Aunt and Uncles bedroom was downstairs and I expected one or the other to come upstairs and tell me what was going on...but neither of them did.  I got out of bed and went to the bathroom that was attached to the bedroom I was sleeping in and I got in the bathtub.  Don't ask me why....I just did it.  It seemed like hours passed with the noise but it was probably just a minute or two or maybe even less.  In times of stress I think that our perception of time is screwed up and what can seem like hours in reality is just a few seconds.  At any rate the noise eventually abated and I went back to sleep.  The next morning when I awoke I immediately went outside to see if all was well and discovered that the tornado had passed between my aunt and uncles house and the house next door.  Probably a small twister but powerful in it's own right as there was debris everywhere and things sticking into other things that didn't seem possible.   It was a close call and once you hear the sound, believe me you never, ever forget it.
Moore has so much to deal with and will have to deal with in the coming months and possibly years so if you've a mind to....donate to an organization that will be able to help those wonderful people get back on their feet. 
I won't suggest any here but I'm sure that any reliable news organization will have information where you can help the best, I know that I'm sure going to do my part. 

Update on the Backyard

We've made more progress on the back yard.  See that stone connecting the "sidewalk" to the bed...well, that's not staying...it was just a temporary measure to keep that area from washing away.  Washing away you are saying...yes, we've had more rain.  Yeah!!!

You can see from the picture here how the beds are filling in nicely and the swing was moved to it's current spot because as you can see from the next picture, we've now finished that bed.

We're picking and choosing the plants to put in there but by this time next year it should look great.  Sticking with natives is such a smart move in more ways than one.  But because they are natives, once they acclimate to their position they are relatively little to no care. 

In this next picture we have some plants that must have come in with the gravel.  They are called "Scrambled Eggs.".   Such a perfect name don't you think?

 

There were a couple of moments when we were bringing in the rocks for the new bed where  I got a little nervous.  My hubby is great on the Bobcat but it was a pretty tight fit and I didn't want there to be any accidents.                                                                                                                                    

We've also finally begun work on our Hell Strip.  Now that's not a normal Hell Strip like you have in the city....it's what we call the area that used to have 3 fruit trees planted and in front of the raised beds.  We had a hard time trying to decide what to do there to make it look seamless from one side of the yard to the next and we finally figured out what to do. 

We decided to pick out rocks just like we've done on the uphill side of the yard. We'd put the rocks on either side of where the trees were planted, fill in with more dirt and replant fruit trees and then the areas around there get more granite gravel and make sure that we get enough to cover the ground in front of the raised beds where there are currently river rocks.  Once we get it all done I think it will really look great and will be so much easier to take care of. 

I'll post more pictures when we've gotten a little further.  Until then...here's an inspirational picture of a dessert I made a couple of weeks ago.  It's a Tiramisu.  I'll post pictures and text on that next time. But until then enjoy.

 

Good-by Old Friend

Let me start this post off by saying that I love, love, love things that are well built and hold up to the test of time when they are taken care of properly.  I had a washer that lasted over 30 years and bought one exactly like it to replace it when it died and it lasted a month over the warranty...shameful.  I have jackets and sweaters that are almost 30 years old, but because I have taken care of them and they were of great quality when they were bought, they are still in great shape and I am able to wear them.  My husband owns a Filson Vest that is about 30 years old and he can still wear it.  My parents have a refrigerator that is over 50 years old.  Now that in itself is pretty amazing but that small refrigerator was bought in Oklahoma and moved to Texas...in Texas it moved twice and then it was moved again when it was packed up and moved to Okinawa where it also was moved twice.  Then it was boxed up again and moved to California, then Nevada (moved twice in NV.), boxed up and moved again over the ocean...this time the Atlantic to England and finally to Texas again where it has been since 1974.  It's still working, has had no repairs done to it except for the little knob on the freezer.....it was replaced in the 70's sometime by my dad and that repair is still holding up just fine.  There should be an award for appliances that stand the test of time....Maybe we should contact GE to let them know about this amazing little refrigerator, but that's not what this post is about.

 Our Wheelbarrow was bought about 3 days after we got married.  It has hauled probably in the neighborhood of several tons of rocks, brush, gravel, granite, dirt, compost ,leaves, yard debris and trash. It has mixed probably thousands (yes, thousands) of gallons of cement and mortar.  It has even provided me with a bed (I curled up into a ball and slept in it) on a day that started some where around 4 a.m. with a 6:30 a.m. concrete pour that didn't get finished until around 2 a.m. for all kinds of reasons.  It has been a workhorse for us and a constant companion.  But she is old, tired and no longer repairable.  It is time to replace her and it makes me just a little sad.

 We took very good care of her, washing her out every single time we had to mix concrete or mortar in her.  She was always on her end so that her bucket didn't catch and hold the rain and her handles were oiled to keep them supple and free from splinters. 
But as all equipment eventually does....she developed tiny little cracks and holes in her bucket.   We've replaced the front wheel several times.  We've replaced just about everything but the bucket.  But after 30 years we've done everything we could possibly do to take good care of her but the time has come to start fresh. We took care of her for 30 years and she gave her all but it's time for her to go to the big wheelbarrow heaven....or maybe I'll just re purpose her and plant flowers in her.  That way  I can still look at her and remember how she served us so well.